Idea #72: Don’t ignore “The Hunger Games”

I’m guilty. Kara is too! We’ve read the books and we both went to see “The Hunger Games” this weekend. It’s kind of a big deal. By Friday the movie had already grossed $68.25 million. It is safe to say that more than a few of our students probably saw it too. There are some things that students are going to talk about during class whether we want them to or not. I think this is one of those things. So why not be prepared to let them talk, give opinions, and describe the movie in the target language. At the very least, they will pick up few new words to add to their vocabulary. Here are some things you could use to stir up a conversation on Monday.

1.) Movie Poster: Note it dosen’t come out until April in Spain. A lot of Spaniards were tweeting about how unfair that is!

2. Twitter #losjuegosdelhambre: Here are some different Tweets about the movie in Spanish…

If you click on “personajes” and then choose a character, it has basically a personal profile of that person. They have 3 – Katniss, Peeta, and Gale. It includes nicknames, physical descriptions, family, friends, and abilities. This basically covers all I try to teach in level 1!

I’m going to bring it up in each class and let them dictate how long we talk about it. If they are interested we will learn from it, if not, no problem. It’s all about getting students to communicate. Good luck in class Monday… May the odds be ever in your favor.:)

Loved Hunger Games. It was our school’s summer reading last summer so kids all read it. I’ve been posting pics and comments on my class facebook all year. I’m going to post the poster you have and look for some tweets-great idea. I forget to look at twitter.In addition to language practice, it’s great for connecting with the kids. I also used words like boletos and palomitas etc.

LOVE Hunger Games. I’ve been posting pictures and sentences about Hunger Games on my class Facebook all year. I can’t wait to post the picture you have here and look into Tweets…I never think of Twitter. I’m also going to look at the juegosdelhambre website…I like the idea of descriptions of the characters.

I just took a screenshot of the twitter page and then pasted it on a powerpoint slide. I used the crop feature under format to eliminate everything by the tweets I wanted. Then I just stretch some of them out to make them easier to read. This allows me to show them authentic language without some of the inappropriate language found on Twitter. I have pages of these made for almost every unit I teach. They make great quizzes, and the kids love figuring out the hashtags!

Thought I’d let you know I used the trailer to open up class after coming back from break. I had their full attention in a way I don’t think I would have otherwise. I started out by telling them that young people in Spain were feeling very frustrated, very angry about the film. At the end of the trailer, they understood why when they saw the date of the estreno of April 20. Before viewing, I gave them certain words & phrases to listen for (vivir en el bosque; valiente; somos 24 y de alli solo uno sale con vida; luchar hasta la muerte; what ages did they hear.) and they were able to signal when they heard them. We followed the viewing with an activity asking about what they did over break. First question was how many had seen the film which was numerous. I asked them to give their opinion of it, a simple critique, or to rate it on a scale of 1-10 depending on their level. Thanks for the idea!

Lisa, thanks for sharing! Your comment reminds me how important it is to use language about topics that are relevant to our students. Plus, OUR job is easier when they are motivated to listen and respond in class! You should check them tomorrow and see which words “stuck” (what they still remember) from your activities and the trailer! I bet it’s quite a few!